Boston Globe – “THE LIQUIDATION of Borders Books, announced last week, is like the death of an unlikely friend – unlikely because Borders was itself implicated in the slow-motion degradation of the culture of the book. The story began in 1971, when brothers Tom and Louis Borders, students at the University of Michigan, established a book shop in Ann Arbor. They were among the first to grasp the potential of digital technology, inventing software that revolutionized how inventories were tracked. Borders became a book-selling powerhouse. The company proved insufficiently nimble, though, when online ordering – via Amazon or the Barnes & Noble website – transformed the point of sale, and digital files – via Kindle, Nook, or iPad – replaced paper publication entirely. The technology that made Borders boom ultimately killed it.”

WSJ – “There will be no storybook ending for Borders. The 40-year-old book seller could start liquidating its 399 remaining stores as early as Friday. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based chain, which helped pioneer the big-box bookseller concept, is seeking court approval to liquidate after it failed to receive any bids that would keep it in business. The move adds Borders to the list of retailers that have failed to adapt to changing consumers’ shopping habits and survive the economic downturn, including Circuit City Stores Inc., Blockbuster and Linens ‘N Things.”

MLive – “But what’s so interesting about what Mitch writes about Borders is what he isn’t writing about, an actual threat to access to the written word—cuts to library funding. From Thomas Jefferson selling his personal collection to the Library of Congress to that most quintessential of American capitalists, Andrew Carnegie, donating his fortune to build public libraries to H.L. Mencken and Ernie Harwell donating their papers to local libraries, the importance of this institution has never been in doubt, until now. Mitch says not a word about the fight over Troy’s library or budget cuts that could threaten other libraries. No pining for the halcyon days of searching musty card catalogs or the magic of Dewey Decimal System. “

Comments Off on Mitch Albom mourns the untimely passing of Borders, silent on libraries

July 19, 2011Comments Off on Mitch Albom mourns the untimely passing of Borders, silent on librariesBorders, Budgets, Libraries

Daily Beast – “A visit to a Borders bookstore, closing because of the bankruptcy, reveals what people aren’t reading, stacks of Nicholas Sparks, and Tom Clancy. Bill Morris on the detritus of the book business.”